On the dragging of light by a rotating medium - Physics Optics

Abstract: When light is passing through a rotating medium the optical polarisation isrotated. Recently it has been reasoned that this rotation applies also to thetransmitted image Padgett et al. 2006. We examine these two phenomena byextending an analysis of Player 1976 to general electromagnetic fields. Wefind that in this more general case the wave equation inside the rotatingmedium has to be amended by a term which is connected to the orbital angularmomentum of the light. We show that optical spin and orbital angular momentumaccount respectively for the rotation of the polarisation and the rotation ofthe transmitted image.